‘Graceland’ Recap — Episode 1.10, “King’s Castle.”

I’m not even sure I can comment on this episode without saying the same things that I’ve said about every episode leading up to it—every single episode the web tangles further and the stakes get higher. The Bello case, it seems, has finally come to a conclusion, at least.

In the last episode, Bello got arrested, so this week it begins with him in custody, refusing to give up information. He knows that he’s going to be in trouble if he goes to jail without protection, because he double-crossed a cartel that has a lot of members who’d know about it—but he also knows that the FBI will have to give him protection whether he spills information about Odin or not, because if he goes out without it, he’s going to get killed, therefore not get the information.

So, Charlie comes up with the idea to offer Mike protection instead—for all Bello knows, Mike is in jail too and could be in some serious trouble if he gets so much as a punch to the gut because of the stab wound he received. So Mike goes and meets Bello, and it seems like it’s working out, until later, Mike asks Charlie to get his pain medication, and Briggs finds out that Charlie is going to be meeting Mike in the visiting room…so he schedules a visit with Bello, therefore ending in Bello walking in on Mike having friendly conversation with Charlie, completely blowing Mike’s cover. Bello wails on him and has to be forcibly removed from the area. Mike is not happy.

Their case with Bello is completely ruined then, except Charlie figures that whoever called to schedule the visit with Bello must be Odin, since no one shows up, and starts combing the prison’s phone records to figure out where the call might have come from. She is also working with the “agent” from Mexico, who at this point I’m about 99% sure is the actual Jangles and is going to go after Briggs as soon as he finds out which agent Charlie is suspecting of being Odin.

Also happening—Mike gets called into headquarters to talk to an officer, expecting praise for busting Bello, and instead receiving news that the bureau thinks Briggs had something to do with the disappearance of Mike’s commanding officer, which we already know he of course did. Briggs killed the officer under the belief that he was jangles, and hid the body. Mike, however, wasn’t even aware that his officer was missing, and is extremely doubtful that Briggs had anything to do with it, because that’s just the way this series goes.

So he goes and confesses all to Paige, who is still angry at him for being a rat, and she calms down a little bit about it when Mike explains that Briggs is a drug addict and all Mike wants to do is get him help, and he really doesn’t think Briggs is the type that would kill someone, though that’s less his conviction then giving Briggs the benefit of the doubt.

Then Mike goes and tells Briggs about it, and comes to the conclusion that Briggs knows nothing about his commanding officer and seemingly lets him off the hook, though he does say that he’s going to look for the tape that his officer would have left behind before his disappearance, which would be in his car.

But of course, Briggs looks up who Mike was talking about later, and realizes that “Jangles” was in fact an FBI agent, and that he totally fucked up.

Also, throughout all of this, Johnny is trying to plan a surprise birthday party for Jakes, but Charlie pops his bouncy house in a fit of frustration and when Jakes comes home he just straight punches Johnny in the face, because Jakes just ruined his chances making up with his ex-wife and apparently needed to take it out on someone.

Johnny then gives an entire speech to the house, currently not getting along very well, about how their job sucks, but for better or for worse they’re all there together and they should at least try to have fun once and a while and try to forget how horrible the world is. It’s really quite moving.

Catch the next episode of Graceland on September 5th at 10/9c, only on USA